For the fifth straight season. They continue to be the model program in the athletic department. Hope they can bring home a natty on Saturday.

The game will be a little different than typical, so here’s what to expect:

THE GAME

The Utes’ offense (white) will battle the defense (red) in Saturday’s game. Morgan Scalley will lead the defense, while Jason Beck is set to coach the offense.

• The first half will feature two 10-minute quarters with a standard clock.
• The second half will consist of two 10-minute quarters with a running clock.
• There will be no kickoffs, punts or returns. PATs and FGs will not be live.
• Regardless of how a drive ends, the ball will be placed on the 35-yard line to start a new drive.

SCORING

Saturday’s Spring Game will feature scoring opportunities for both the offense and defense.

Offense:
TD: 6 points
FG: 3 points
PAT: 1 point

Defense:
TD: 6 points
Turnover: 4 points
Stop before 50: 3 points
Stop after 50/Hold to FG: 2 points
Sack: 2 points
Failed 2-point conversion: 2 points
Safety: 2 points

This might be my favorite so far, because Howard put up 4.2 ppg in 9 minutes per game a a No. 1 seed. He also shot 40.9% from long-distance.

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I’ll have more on how I want to explain this later, but I definitely do think this is the first bit of proof that Jensen needs to get here asap.

It was never about money for Wahlin either, who turned down even more money from a school than Clemson is giving him.

Today we saw #7 Jonno Hall, #2 Smith Snowden, #1 Rabbit Evans, #9 Elijah “Scooby” Davis, and #3 Levani Damuni.

The videos will be posted in the comments!

Here’s everyone currently visiting:


Kelvin Odih - 2025 Rivals Top100
Terrence Brown - Utah commit
Elijah Moore - Syracuse
Tyler Betsey - Cincinnati

Thinking about flying in for the game but don’t want to watch a bunch of walkons.

What are the chances all the new guys get multiple series?

Kelvin Odih, who had recently been committed to West Virginia. He’s the No. 77 rated overall player in the Class of 2025 & No. 22 shooting guard. He has ties to Coach Chill and while it’s not a guarantee he ends up at Utah, Utah will be viewed as a favorite. He’ll be visiting Monday-Wednesday & should be quite a few recruiting at the same time.

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Utes land one of there official visitors that they had in Monday through Wednesday. Moore was the No. 68 rated player in the 2024 Rivals100. He averaged 5.2 points in just over 15 minutes per game as a freshman.

Kendyl Sanders visited Utah unofficially last weekend. He’s a bit of a sleeper that Chills and Jensen project to breakout in 1-2 years. This is the mystery guy that I was asked to stay quiet about.

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Here are my notes and observations from Spring Practice today:

Today we saw a heavier rushing attack than what we’ve seen in the previous practices which was complemented with more contact as well. Plenty of rushers took the ball.

#1 Wayshawn Parker proved what he can do, with a left-side run through the middle and he was gone for a 50-yard touchdown on a 3rd and 3, barely touched. Wayshawn could become the best RB we’ve seen since Zack Moss.

We also saw runs to #23 Devin Green and #21 Naquari Rodgers. Devin Green especially showed a lot of ability to take hits and fight through the middle. I saw two successful 3rd down conversions on Devin Green Runs.

Rogers also had a great 3rd and short conversion against a loaded box. It looked like he was stuffed at the line, but he made a strong second effort to push for the 1st down.

Another exciting play today was the Jet Sweeps implemented today with handoffs to Zacharyus Williams and Creed Whittemore.

Dampier:

Today might have been the smoothest Dampier drive I’ve seen yet this spring. This drive included

• Quick slant to #10 Hunter Andrews
• Zacharyus Williams Jet Sweep
• QB Draw for 12 yards and a first down
• 20 yard run by Dampier
• A botched snap recovered by Dampier, a loss of 5-6
• Quick pass to #34 Rayshawn Glover
• And then a 25-yard Touchdown Pass under pressure to #5 Otto Tia (followed by up-downs for the entire offense for not handing the ball to the ref after)

2nd team struggled today, characterized by defense dominating overall. Wilson and Ficklin both had fumbles on handoff connections to Creed and Rodgers respectively.

Ficklin did have an amazing pass under pressure to #19 Luca Caldwell, but it was broken up by a mean hit from #11 Rock Caldwell and Luca couldn’t hang on. The offense had a False Start with Ficklin and a Delay of Game with Wilson. There just wasn’t a lot of movement in those drives, but I think a lot of that credit goes to Defensive Line.

Defensively, we saw Pass breakups from Caldwell, Snowden, and Tao. We saw a massive hit from Tao on Devin Green today as well. The middle linebackers are locking down anything over the middle, passing has been most successful on the outside, but even then most completions require the receiver to fight for the ball.

Crazy that Rob Wright signs at Baylor then goes to the Zoobs.

The Utes got a new commitment from James Okonkwo. He’s a well-traveled 6-foot-8 and 240 forward with one year remaining. He’s played it both West Virginia and North Carolina, before last year with Akron. He’s should bring physicality and toughness and he should be a good energy guy for the team.

Remember, even if the stats don’t jump off the page, Utah needs pieces to the puzzle and solid role players.

More to come, but this is who I was referring to. Schiller served as an assistant coach for the German national team from 2015 to 2019, which is where his paths crossed with Jensen in 2015. He was also the G-League Coach of the Year for the Salt Lake City Stars in 2020

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Tennessee QB no show to practice.

What was his GPA? Asking for a friend....

World is forever changed. This is way out of hand and not changing anytime soon, even with the trial going on. Hoping it does but I am not optimistic.

Looks like another addition to the staff.
https://kslsports.com/ncaa/utah/utah-basketball-alex-jensen-8/545127

I've been monitoring several guys in the portal who I think could join the Runnin' Utes:

Kelvin Odih: With the news from Alex yesterday that Kelvin will be visiting, he's at the top of the list, although he's not technically in the portal, since he'll be an incoming freshman. This would be a great addition. The 2025 4-star former West Virginia commit, also visited Rutgers and Marquette in his recruitment in 2024. There will be a lot of competition for him, with good reason. Odih averaged 19.1 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.2 blocked shots per game as a high school junior and he was the 2022-23 MaxPreps Rhode Island High School Basketball Player of the Year. He's a top 100 recruit.
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Cam McDowell – former Georgia and Jacksonville St guard can flat out put points on the board. He was #2 in scoring in all of NCAA DII for Northwestern Oklahoma, averaging 27.3 ppg while shooting 39% from three-point-range. He visited at the end of March.
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Jayden Brewer – former FIU guard averaged 14.5 ppg in his first season as a starter for the Panthers. While he only shot 21.2% from beyond the arc, he shot 48% overall.
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Will McClendon – the former UCLA and San Jose St guard had his breakout season cut short by a knee injury in February. He hit 35% of his 3’s, averaging 12 ppg.
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Blaise Threatt – the First-Team All-Big Sky guard led Weber State in points (20 ppg), rebounds (5.8 rpg), assists (4.4 apg), and steals (1.9 spg) last season. The season before, one of his assistant coaches was Eric Daniels, who the Utes just officially added yesterday as a new assistant.

This one I have yet to get a name, but it could pop as soon as today. It’s either a foreign coach who Jensen knew at one point with the Salt Lake Stars or someone who has foreign coaching experience. Either way, it’s a deliberate move Jensen is making for a foreign pipeline.

More to come, but they are:

Isaiah Watts, Wazzu (Chillious coached him in HS)

Camron McDowell, who averaged 27 ppg in DII this season

Amsal Delalic, Pitt (was apparently utilized wrong this year)

More to come. I’m currently driving.

This is a terrific hire:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/breaking-eric-daniels-joins-runnin-utes-staff

This is a slight shock, but not entirely. Sharavjamts wanted to stay initially, but this likely changed during meetings with the new staff. I be figured he could be a good depth piece during a “bridge year,” but fans should have a ton of faith on getting someone to duplicate or better what Sharavjamts did in his role.

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When the transfer portal first opened, Utah was showing up on a lot of lists, but now I’m barely seeing them mentioned. Does anyone know why Utah seems to never be mentioned now? Any thoughts?

I’m told an assistant hire announcement is expected as early as today. It’s not Andre, and it might be viewed as an underrated one, but among basketball coaching circles, it’ll be a really nicely viewed one. In my opinion, it’s a no-brainer hire and it might shut the door on retaining any current staff.